nick the swede

Hi Guys,
I was plagued with childhood asthma but I have managed to over come most of it now ( I'm 20). I am just curious though I seem to get pretty out of breath sometimes out biking and especially after hard rides I have trouble breathing after. I am thinking about maybe starting up with medicine again ( an inhaler) but I'm worried it might seem as doping. Obviously asthma is one thing but obviously everyone asthma or not gets short of breath after hard strenuous work.

Are these even close to the same drugs that would be classify as doping?

Jakedatc

Are you racing? if not who cares. If so, you should be able to get a medical exemption or something.

should probably talk to your doctor before you re-start any medication.

jdon

More important than anything, you want to have asthma well controlled. Racing is difficult when your medical status is dead. See a Dr. If you can see a sports MD, they should be able to guide you on banned substances.

jsutkeepspining

really unless you're a cat 1/2 no body will care at all.

Kurogashi

I'm no pro racer but I am an asthmatic like yourself and I highly doubt it's considered doping; heck, you're the one at the disadvantage, and the inhalers are just 'leveling' out the playing field.

Asthma is a chronic disease, it won't go away no matter how hard you try. You just have to deal with it, and don't try being a hero by tanking it out or what not because you're just damaging your lungs.

I always use my puffer before a ride, and after a ride if I need to, and I ALWAYS carry it with me. Don't think of asthma as a handicap, because thanks to asthma, I stayed away from a lot of stupid crap.

Beaker

There was a thread about this not long ago - if you're using mainstream asthma medications, you would have no issue even in competition, no need to even file a therapeutic use exemption IIRC.

DGlenday

+1

The inhaler does not seem to hurt or help my performance in any way. Just helps me to stop coughing. (I have CVA - cough-variant asthma.)

Sienna19

For me, the prescription "albuterol" works on the asthma without jacking up my heart rate as the otc stuff.

agoodale

True. I'm on Singulair & Advair. I also carry an inhaler at all times but only use it about once per month. With these meds I can now score just slightly below normal on peak flow tests (which is unbelievably awesome after years of training without them). None of these medications require a TUE if you're racing.

You can check the status of most medications here: https://www.globaldro.com/us-en/default.aspx

Machka 

Are your inhalers steroid based? Are you racing? If your answer to either of the questions is "No", don't worry about it.

topflightpro

OP, I went through the same thing several years ago. I had stopped taking my asthma medicine in college. But once I started riding and racing, I could feel it was holding me back.

I went to my doctor, who found that my asthma was significantly limiting my breathing ability - my pulmonary numbers were very low - and got back on asthma medication. Because I race, I went through the process of learning which medications were banned and which were not.

Right now, I use Advair daily - not banned in competition or training - and carry Xenoprex HFA for my emergency inhaler - also not banned in or out of competition. The original daily inhaler I had - Symbicort - is banned, as was the original emergency inhaler - Proventil. If you used Symbicort and Proventil, then yes, you technically are doping. But the Advair and Xenoprex work just as well for me.

If you find that Advair and Xenoprex don't work for you, you can have your doctor fill out a Therapuetic Use Exemption that allows you to use the medication without concern of doping. However, your doctor will have to justify why non-banned substances are insufficient.

All that said, I still get dirty looks when I grab my inhaler at the starting line, but it is perfectly acceptable.

JPWendtinc

+1

The combination of Advair and Singulair have been a godsend to me. I am on my bike almost every day and I cant even remember the last time I needed my albuterol.

Beaker

well no, as an asthmatic he wouldn't be "doping", he'd just need a TUE, and even then the chances of getting called out on this outside of the higher cats seems very small indeed. This seems to be an odd/unexplained discrepancy since symbicort and Advair both contain a long acting beta agonist and an inhaled corticosteroid, I can't imagine there being any difference between them in this context.